rocketride Loc: Upstate NY

No equipment failures here. I use Canons. :XD:
(Someone had to say it.)

Dlevon Loc: New Jersey

Same here. Only Canon, no equipment failure. Only photographer failure!

rocketride Loc: Upstate NY

Actually, I do have one more tale of user error masquerading as equipment failure from my film days. I was in England photographing the stained glass in one of the cathedrals (I forget which one-- this was 30+ years ago) with my Olympus OM-2n. I had a winder on it and both an electronic cable release on the winder and a mechanical cable release on the body's own shutter button. I tried to fire the camera with the electronic release and it wouldn't fire. Eventually, I figured out that the tip of the mechanical cable was, even when it was not being operated, pushing on the mechanism under the body's button enough to interfere with the winder's attempt to operate the camera, but not enough to trigger it, itself.

Elliott Design Loc: West Tennessee

Haven't lost much due to equipment failure, but a few user error mishaps enhanced by people unaware that anyone else is on this planet but themselves have come close to disaster. A few weeks ago I was shooting a night time dirt track stock car race, had a couple speed lights on a stand at a safe distance from the normal track traffic. A car spun out and here comes Bubba in his wrecker, got the car off the track and on his way back to the pits he made a turn directly at my speed lights, I got him flagged down and turned just in time. The official track photographer said it was a good thing it was Bubba driving the wrecker, if it had been his cousin Bubba Jr. he wouldn't have stopped and would have went ahead and run over it just for fun. Overall it was interesting, not my desire to do it regularly but got a few shots of my friend's car, a bit harder than BIF's these SCIF's (stock cars in flight) are running around 80 MPH in the turns and that's where you get the action shots.

phlash46 Loc: Westchester County, New York

Ditto!

MCHUGH Loc: Jacksonville, Texas

Had several failures both me and equipment, but the one I most remember was at a wedding I was photographing. Of course it was a big wedding and the parents were pillars of the community and important. In the first 3o minutes I was at the wedding doing the before the ceremony shots, I had two sync cords fail, a flash unit go out, a camera lock up, and a lens fail. Of course I had back up equipment for all and never missed a shot but glad all this happened at the start and not during the ceremony. I always had three of every thing when I went on location whether it was a wedding, portrait, or commercial job which saved me several times in the 30 active years as a professional photographer.

rocketride Loc: Upstate NY

Yes, when it's 'mission-critical', you have backups on your backups.

wj cody Loc: springfield illinois

never had that happen with any of my canon, leica, nikon or hasselblad film cameras

Creta1 Loc: Vancouver, BC

Last Month we were in Scotland. Booked a trip out to the Iske of May on a zodiac to shot the Puffins. Packed all my Nikon gear back into the backback. Had also taken my Fuji XE-2 with me. Put that down the front of my survival suit. As we are coming back the wind starts in. The boats slamming into the waves, water straight in my face. I'm confident my camera is dry, it way down inside my shift, I have my hand closed on the collar the hole time. We get around the other island we stop for picture moment. I let my hand go open the collar.... down goes the water right onto the back of my Fuji. Think it's ok I shook it off right away. One snap it toast. Not recoverable. Moral of this, ziplock baggy next time.

picturesofdogs Loc: Dallas, Texas.

Shooting a car show. A7ii, LAEA4, and minolta 50mm. Liveview on the a7ii doesn't actually adjust the aperture, it generates an image of what you would see, then sets the aperture when you trigger the shutter, unless the aperture blades have accumulated enough of an oil buildup from runny helicoil lube to make them stick.
Usually check image every couple of shots, this time i didn't. White cars in a blizzard.

eric-taylor

This one is total user error but I have learned my lesson. Not to get detracted.
I was photographing a wedding. And right before the ceremony I am making some pictures of the bride with her family in indoors. The ceremony is about to begin and I head out side to get in to position. Some of the grooms family starts talking to me, then the music starts and the wedding party comes fast and the bride right behind them no spacing like they did in the rehearsal, but no problem I am rolling with it, I get pics of them all coming down the isle just as i did at the rehearsal. As the bride passes me in the isle I glance down at the back of the camera and the 2 second preview is just totally white. Oh snap. I neglected to adjust the settings after I went outdoors. Quickly I run around to the front of the altar and get some correctly exposed photos of the bride and her father, to try and make up for it. Thankfully the client was so pleased with the shoot that she didn't miss the isle pics at all.
Even worse tho.
I am second shooting for my Dad I am really young but he trusts me enough to second shoot a wedding with him. He sets me up with a flash as the venue is really dark. I shoot the ceremony's and reception with his back up Canon AE-1 (film camera).
Everything seems like it went really well and I am super excited to see the photos from my first wedding. My dad has the film developed, and brings me in to have a look at the proofs. The ceremony looks great then he lays down the proofs from the reception and there is a black bar running vertically down the top few photos. He crosses his arms as I thumb through the stack. They all have black bars running down the picture. Somewhere between the ceremony the shutter speed got changed and all the pics weren't synced with flash and me being a noob wasnt checking because I knew the flash was set at the right power. All of them ruined. Luckily he more than covered the reception so the clients were none the wiser but boy did I learn my lesson.

Gobuster Loc: South Florida

Many years ago on a trip to Germany, shot many 36 exposure rolls of Kodachrome with my Canon A1 and 50mm FD lens. When I got them developed after the trip, almost all were way overexposed. Turns out the diaphram on the lens failed to stop down and was stuck wide open. The only shots properly exposed were the ones that called for F1.8! The hard part was that everything appeared to be functioning and I had no idea about the problem until it was too late. Anytime I used the camera afterward I made sure to use the DoF preview often to check if the lens was stopping down! Boy do I love digital - that problem could never happen to me today!

joer Loc: Colorado/Illinois

Just one; D70 blue screen of death. Nikon took care of it free of charge.

bkyser Loc: Fly over country in Indiana

I think most of us that shoot weddings, have at least one story that proves the fact that you need 2 of everything.

I've shared stories of dropping my D-200 from the top of a ladder, just because I was so used to carrying my camera body on a strap, just not "this time" let it go, and gravity took over. Also dropped a couple of Nikon 70-200 2.8 VR lenses on pavement, 2 separate occasions.

I hear comments about "you should be more careful" well, duh :roll: The fact of the matter is, if you shoot a LOT, bad stuff WILL happen, even if you are trying to be careful.

strobe Loc: Central Iowa

I was on a trip to Israel and the frame advance lever, YUP 35mm, stopped advancing. I shot the rest of the trip with a pocket camera that I took because it had a built in flash. I did get some photos from others on the trip when a longer lens was needed.

After I got home I took out the teeny tiny little screw that held the plastic cover on the lever and discovered that there was another teeny tiny screw that held the level on the post that turned and it was out, but it has been trapped in the cover. If I'd only have taken the cover off some night in the hotel room and looked while I was on the trip I could have used the camera for the rest of the trip. I didn't think to take a teeny tiny screw driver with me.